Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence

AbstractPROF. GORDON CHILDE has a sense of perspective in time, which has been developed to a degree exceptional even among archaeologists, who juggle with millennia; and he is little more restricted in space, for he ranges from the north of Scotland to the Valley of the Indus with a familiarity which few may emulate. He is, therefore, in a position to recommend with confidence the study of archaeology as an antidote to those modern pessimists, who are disposed to doubt the soundness of the foundations upon which the belief in ‘progress', inherited from the late nineteenth century, takes its stand. Neither ‘age’, nor century, he argues, and equally no single area marked out by geographical or national limitations, can afford material adequate for such a judgment. The impartial inquirer must survey all time, and take the whole world as his province, before he ventures to pronounce upon the trend of events in present-day civilization .Man makes Himself
 By V. Gordon Childe. (The Library of Science and Culture.) Pp. xii + 275. (London: Watts and Co., 1936.) 7s. 6d. net.

"Man Makes Himself" by

PROF. V. GORDON CHILDE is one of the foremost prehistorians. He has travelled widely and done much work of great importance to the specialist ; he has, as it were, personally added many bricks to the edifice of prehistoric knowledge. But he has also long realized that prehistory and early history form a continuum, and that, by standing back and contemplating the whole, many general conclusions can be arrived at with regard to the rise and fall of civilizations. Too often volumes purporting to give such cultural resumes come unavoidably from the pens of 'scissors and paste' authors who do very good work but cannot, of course, write with any personal authority. What Happened in History By Prof. V. Gordon Childe. (Pelican Books. A. 108.) Pp. 256. (Harmondsworth and New York: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1942.) 9d.

What Happened in History

Key Economic Areas in Chinese History: As Revealed in the Development of Public Works for Water-Control

Biologiste reconnu, notamment, pour sa contribution a la fondation de la genetique des populations, J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) est egalement membre du Parti Communiste de Grande-Bretagne entre 1942 et 1950 et, a partir de 1937, il defend avec force l'opinion que le marxisme est utile au travail scientifique. Notre etude porte sur les idees marxistes de Haldane et sur la maniere dont elles sont historiquement produites. Elle examine d'abord son parcours intellectuel et propose de comprendre son adoption du marxisme dans le cadre d'une dynamique de recherche d'unite entre des conceptions des sciences, de la philosophie et de la politique. L'etude porte ensuite sur la maniere dont fonctionne ce qui est caracterise comme une vision marxiste du monde, c'est-a-dire un mode de production et de circulation de concepts. En particulier, l'assertion que fait Haldane d'un usage du marxisme dans son travail scientifique est confrontee a certains de ses travaux en genetique des populations, ainsi qu'aux idees qu'il emet concernant l'eugenisme. Cette confrontation permet de confirmer et de generaliser, contre Sarkar (1992) et Shapiro (1993), le resultat propose par Hammond (2004) d'une effectivite du marxisme de Haldane dans ses sciences, et de preciser la maniere dont elle se realise. Finalement, nous proposons une comprehension du marxisme de Haldane comme un cas particulier de processus historiques plus generaux. Nous examinons l'histoire des idees marxistes sur les sciences et le phenomene d'engagement politique de scientifiques britanniques a cette epoque, et interrogeons par la les racines politiques et sociales du marxisme de Haldane.

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Biographie d'une vision du monde : les relations entre science, philosophie et politique dans la conception marxiste de J.B.S. Haldane

Half a century of political Marxism and Soviet social science deoected Marxist thought from its canonical sources. Communism and Marxism were so intertwined by events of the twentieth century that it is difacult to see what remains of the latter after the demise of the former. Speciacally,three foundational principles—“being determines consciousness,” the Asiatic Mode of Production,and “the ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas”—have been corrupted by heartfelt ideological commitments. A review of those principles against the background of Marxist writing on the history of science stakes out research frontiers that remain to be reconnoitered. Marxism has left an indelible mark on many aelds of scholarship, perhaps nowhere more visibly than in the history of science. Ideologue and ideology have enriched the aeld and enlivened discussions of the connections between science and society. Boris Hessen, V. Gordon Childe, and J.D. Bernal led the way, while Joseph Needham’s study of the history of Chinese science and technology is a towering achievement of twentiethcentury scholarship. Now that government by communist parties can be seen in historical perspective it may be timely to review dispassionately these intellectual repercussions in a aeld that has been disproportionately inouenced by Marxist ideas. With the beneat of hindsight it should be possible to see how the principles of the founding fathers were reshaped by the political requirements of the “struggle to create a socialist society,” sometimes resulting in interpretations that were politically correct but canonically obscure.

Harold Dorn

Papers

SCIENCE, MARX, and HISTORY: Are There Still Research Frontiers?

How We Got Here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets – Andy Kessler

Saints and Scientists